Android SMS Backup & Restore: 4 Methods to Save and Restore SMS on Android
Last Updated on December 1, 2022 by Jack Robertson
SMS matters even though people fancy instant messaging apps like Whatsapp. The digital invoices from the paid services, the sweet conversations with your loved ones, and important notifications from work are what we can find on the Messages app on our Android.
None of them deserve an accidental deletion or missing due to system bugs. So, back up your text messages on your Android. You may save them on the cloud, export them to another phone or a computer.
To help you keep your Android SMS safe, let’s start to back them up. Also, skills for restoring them for later usage will be displayed.
Android SMS Backup & Restore:
Method 1: How to Back up and Restore Android SMS with Google One
For Android users, Google One is the backup tool you should never miss. Being the official backup service of Android OS, Google One saves most of your Android data to Google Drive automatically. SMS is included for sure. Moreover, it’s very easy to start on your Android. Now, let’s activate it on your Android and start to save text messages to Google Drive.
Steps to Back Up Text Messages to Google Drive
On your Android phone, go to Settings - Google - Backup. Turn on the Google One on this Android.
Next, locate Backup by Google One, make sure it’s on. After this, Google One will save all your SMS and MMS to Google Drive automatically through Wifi when your phone has been idle and charging for 2 hours.
- To back up your SMS right away, tap on Back up now.
- It backs up other data as well, scroll down and find all the supported data. Disable them if you’d like to.
How to Restore SMS From Google Drive/One to Phone
While the SMS backup process of Google One is easy, to restore them back to a phone isn’t. To download SMS and MMS from Google One, the target phone needs to be:
- A new phone that’s not been used;
- Or, in factory settings after a reset.
Tip:
To reset your Android, go to Settings - System - Reset - Factory Reset/Erase All Data. Depending on the phone you use, maybe you will find the Reset option in General Or Reset and Data option.
Start the target Android and set it up. After that, launch Settings, go to Google and log in with your Google account.
After detecting this is a new phone, Google will prompt you to restore backup to this phone. Follow the on-screen instruction and choose the previous backup. Download it to this Android.
Method 2: How to Save Android Text Messages with SMS Backup & Restore
There’re third-party apps on Google Play that we can use to save our messages. Here, I will introduce the SMS Backup & Restore to you.
SMS Backup & Restore is a pretty controversial backup tool among all users. At first, people thought the developer of it owns their own cloud storage. But it turns out that this tool will just save messages to Google Drive, DropBox or OneDrive.
There is no difference for the result compared to Google One backup. Only it has a more complex setup process though and is easior for restoring SMS.
Steps to Back up with SMS Backup & Restore App
Step 1 On Google Play, search it and install the app.
Step 2 Launch it, tap Get Started. If it asks you for permission to access contacts, messages and storage on your Android, tap Allow.
Step 3 Tap SET UP A BACKUP from the screen. Keep the Messages option on and turn off the Call Logs option if you don’t want to back up the call history. Tap on Advanced Options to decide whether you want to back up all messages or selected conversations. Tap Next.
Step 4 Decide which cloud service you prefer to save your SMS, Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive. You need to have an account for the selected service first.
Step 5 Complete the login. Then, you can enable the app to delete old backups that exist for certain days. Tap Save.
Step 6 Next, locate ONLY UPLOAD, there, decide how you want the app to save your contacts, over Wi-Fi or While charging. Tap Next.
Step 7 You can decide how frequently the app backs up your SMS, daily, weekly or hourly. Exit the app then, it will start to save your SMS based on the frequency you set up.
Tip: To save your message right away, tap Back Up Now.
How to Restore Messages from SMS Backup & Restore
While the backup process is more complex, the steps of restoring from SMS Backup & Restore are easier than the ones of Google One - no factory reset required.
Step 1 Launch the app and tap Restore from the Menu button (Top left corner).
Step 2 Make sure the Messages option is on. Disable the Call Logs option if you want to. Tap on Advanced Options and decide the backup you want to restore.
Step 3 Tap Restore to proceed. The app will prompt you to tap OK to let the system switch the default messaging app to this app. Do it anyway. You can switch it back later.
Step 4 Lastly, all the SMSs from the backup file will be restored to your Android phone. Tap Close to complete.
Method 3: How to Back Up Text Messages from Android to Computer
Apart from cloud storage, you can also choose to export your SMS to a computer. It’s stable, reliable, and requires no internet connection.
Let’s start by downloading Android Data Backup & Restore on your computer to conduct the SMS export.
Being a professional data backup and restore tool for all Android phones, you can always rely on it for its ultimate quality for backup. With it, you can save your messages without any restrictions easily. You can decide the folder, the data for backup, and encryption as well.
To protect your privacy, it lets you set a password to the backup. In this case, whoever is using the computer cannot check your text messages unless he/she has the password.
More importantly, the restore process is so easy. There’s no login of any accounts nor factory reset. Just connect your phone and do some clicks.
Download the program on your computer and let’s start to archive your text messages to the computer!
Archive Text Messages from Android to Computer
Step 1
Launch the program and choose Android Data Backup & Restore. Connect your Android to the computer with a USB cable as prompted.
Enable USB Debugging if you’re asked to. Go to Settings - System - Build Number (tap 7 times) - System - Developer Option - USB Debugging. In this case, your Android is avaiable to transfer any data to the computer via this USB cable.
Step 2
There, you can choose the One-click Backup option to save all the data from your Android to the computer.
Or, you just want to make a backup of your Android SMS, choose Device Data Backup. Uncheck the Select All option first and tick only Messages.
Click Start and choose a folder from your computer to save the backup file. Click OK to complete.
How to Restore Android SMS from Computer Back to Android
Step 1
Connect your Android to the computer and launch the program. Choose Android Data Backup & Restore - Device Data Restore.
Step 2
Choose the backup file from the list, click Start to restore it back to your Android.
Method 4: How to Transfer Text Messages from Android to Android/iPhone without App
You can also choose to export your text messages from this Android to another phone, be it Android or iPhone. And if you hate third-party apps, don’t worry, you can do it without apps.
All the steps can be done within the Messages app on our Android phone. Follow the steps below!
Export your Text Messages from Android to Another Phone within Messages App
On your Android, launch Messages, locate the target message you want to export. Long press on it to activate a pop-out menu. There, you have three options:
- Copy: Duplicate the content of this message to the clipboard of the phone. Later, you can transfer the text to another phone via WhatsApp or email.
- Forward: Re-send this message to another phone number - this requires you to insert another Sim card on the target phone.
- Share: Transfer the message through Bluetooth. Pair the two phones and complete the transfer.
This is free and free. The only drawback is that you need to export the messages one by one.
FAQs
Yes, you can do that. Just note that the steps are rather complex and there're chances that SMS Backup+ will fail to back up the text messages after a recent update of the Android system.